Malaysia Airlines will replace the northbound flight from Friday with new flight number 318, with the return flight to Kuala Lumpur changing to flight 319 from flight 371.

The carrier, which operates double daily services to Beijing from its Kuala Lumpur hub, said it has no plans to change its frequencies on the route.

Airlines often retire flight numbers following fatal crashes so as not to evoke negative emotions among other passengers and crew. This is particularly true with high-profile accidents, say aviation analysts.

Asiana Airlines of South Korea last August retired flight number 214, weeks after a jet with the same call sign crash-landed at San Francisco’s airport, resulting in three deaths and leaving dozens seriously injured.

In 2011, United Airlines apologized for inadvertently reactivating the flight numbers of two of its planes that crashed after being hijacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.

The airline blamed a computer error for assigning flight numbers 93 and 175 to upcoming flights, and they were changed before the actual flights operated.

Korean Air Lines doesn’t use flight numbers involved in its earlier crashes, including flight number 007, which was shot down by Russian fighter jets in 1983 when the trans-Pacific Boeing allegedly flew over Soviet airspace by accident.

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Indonesia Real Time provides analysis and insight into the region, which includes Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei. Contact the editors at SEAsia@wsj.com.

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